In the field of winemaking, it is known to use spectroscopic analysis of wines and substances used in the preparation of wines (e.g. grape musts), in order to perform quantitative and qualitative determination of components of such liquids.
For example, an optical spectrometry based assay system for vinification liquids is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,885,003.
Another device for spectroscopic assay of a liquid vinification product is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0091279.
Wine is a complex substance, in which there are a vast variety of components that have a significant effect on the quality and character of the wine. Accordingly, a thorough analysis of a wine can require measurement of a notable number of parameters. Different types of parameters include content (concentration) of compounds, and physical and physico-chemical properties of the specimen. Examples of some parameters include alcohol content, sugar content, acidity, color, phenols and anthocyanins contents, other wine constituents which are critical for wine quality.
Commercially available spectroscopic solutions for wine analysis include multiparameter systems capable of measuring several parameters (e.g. FOSS Winescan™), but carry a notable expense that may not be justifiable as an in-house analysis option for a smaller winery. Photometer-based single parameter wine analyzing devices are available on a more affordable basis (e.g. wine photometers by HANNA Instruments), but mean that only one parameter can be measured, or that a collection of multiple devices is required to measure more than one parameter.
A known alternative to in-house wine assaying equipment is the use of an independent outside laboratory to perform the analysis, but has the added complication of requiring transport of the wine samples to the laboratory, may be more costly and significantly time consuming since the full testing process (preparation of suitable test samples, calibration of equipment, measurement procedures, and processing of the results) is carried out entirely by the staff of the outside laboratory.
Determination of a significant number of wine parameters requires preparation of an extensive number of test samples, as the determination of many of the parameters of interest requires either mixing the wine with a particular reagent prior to the spectroscopic scan, or performing scans of different samples in which the wine has been mixed with different reagents or reagent mixtures. Accordingly, multi-parameter assaying of wine conventionally requires a technician with in-depth specialized knowledge to ensure that the samples are prepared and analyzed correctly, and the data results from the scans are handled and processed appropriately to gain accurate and meaningful results.
Some effort in the area of photometric analysis has previously been made to partially automate the test process to reduce the number of steps required by the technician to reduce the potential for error. Particularly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,386,287 and U.S. Patent Application Publication 2013/0217141 disclose the idea of employing a barcode scanner in combination with a photometer and equipping sample cuvettes with barcode labels that are read by the scanner in order to retrieve calibration data used to calibrate the photometer according to a pre-filled reagent contained within the cuvette. This avoids erroneous results that may come from an inadvertent mismatch between technician-controlled calibration conditions of the photometer and the particular analyte/reagent combination being scanned in the cuvette.
However, the barcode data in these prior art solutions is not used for any tracking, management or processing of the output data from the photometer. Accordingly, in the case of spectroscopic wine analysis, where multi-parameter testing capabilities requires processing of the spectral data from a significant number of different scans, the prior art concept of using the barcode to calibrate the measurement equipment does nothing to prevent erroneous application of the measured data in the subsequent processing from which useful information is derived from the raw measurement data. Accordingly, skilled expertise would still be required
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for an affordable multi-parameter spectroscopic wine analysis system and process by which non-specialized winery personnel can perform spectroscopic scans of vinification liquids and obtain accurate error-free and meaningful results without in-depth training or knowledge on the complexities of such spectroscopic analysis.